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From this website: Bolzano is a city in the South Tyrol province of north Italy, set in a valley amid hilly vineyards. It’s a gateway to the Dolomites mountain range in the Italian Alps. In the medieval city center, the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology features the Neolithic mummy called Ötzi the Iceman. Nearby is the imposing 13th-century Mareccio Castle, and the Duomo di Bolzano cathedral with its Romanesque and Gothic architecture.
With a population of 107,436, Bolzano is also by far the largest city in South Tyrol and the third largest in Tyrol. The metropolis has about 250,000 inhabitants and is one of the urban centers within the Alps.
Prehistory and Roman settlement
The modern-day Bolzano was in ancient times a marshy region inhabited by the Raetian Isarci people, traditionally believed to be descendants of Etruscan refugees fleeing Italy from the invading Gauls. The Romans built a settlement after the area had been conquered in 15 BC by General Nero Claudius Drusus. The military settlement, Pons Drusi (Drusus Bridge), was named after this Roman General. During this time the area became part of the region Venetia et Histria (Regio X) of ancient Italy.
In 1948, excavations of the current Cathedral led to the discovery of an ancient Christian basilica from the 4th century. Also discovered was a Roman cemetery, including the tomb of “Secundus Regontius” with Latin inscriptions dating to the 3rd century, making him the oldest known inhabitant of Bolzano.
We stopped for a coffee break at this city and this is what we saw in half an hour:
Walking up a street, we saw this amazing walkway across the road. It had a full length line of garden boxes with many hanging flowering plants. This planting had a very softening edge to otherwise very straight lines.
We walked over a bridge and this is the river below.
Beautiful old buildings in Bolzano.
Walking up the street, there were beautiful little gardens that gave a very pleasant, eye-catching softness of flowering plants to the hard construction lines of the street and buildings.
Tall palms give a soft overhead canopy of green palm fronds.
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